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...the Voice of America.

I'm Steve Aldridge from the VOA News Center in Washington.

A top Iraqi official says US and Iraqi forces have killed the leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, a guerilla group of Sunni insurgents linked to Al Qaeda in Iraq terrorists. Deputy Interior Minister Hussein Kamal said authorities have custody of the body of Abu Omar al-Baghdadi, who was killed in a battle north of the capital. The official did not say when the battle took place. A US military spokesman said the military is to hold a news conference later today to announce what he called a success in a recent operaion against Al Qaeda linked terrorists. Earlier, the American Embassy said four Philipine contractors working for the US government were killed in a rocket attack on Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone.

US Senate leaders are scheduled to meet with President Bush's Chief of Staff to work on a compromise funding bill for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. White House Chief of Staff Josh Bolten will meet with Senate Majority leader Harry Reid and Senate Minority leader Mitch McConnell today to begin discussions. The meeting comes one day after the US House of Representatives tried unsuccessfully to overright the presidential veto on a funding bill that contained a timeline for withdrawing troops from Iraq.

Police in Afghanistan say attackers have fatally shot an Afghan Senator who briefly served as prime minister in the early 1990s. Authorities say Abdul Sabur Farid was killed late Wednesday outside his home in the country's capital Kabul. Mr. Farid was Afghanistan's Prime Minister for one month. In 1992 during a chao of civil war that followed the defeat of the Soviet Army. The murder for the Senator's killing is not clear.

Pressure mounted on Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to resign on Wednesday. Israel's Foreign Minister called on Mr. Olmert to step down, following a publication this week, a report critical of his leadership during last year's war in Lebanon. VOA's Jim Teeple has more from Jerusalem.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni who consistently scores high in the pose called a news conference late Wednesday to say she is withdrawing her support from Israel's increasingly beligered Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. Livni says that in a meeting she had met Mr. Olmert. She told him resigning is the right thing to do and she says she had no idea whether he will follow her advice. At the same time, Livni says she will seek to replace Mr. Olmert as Leader of the Centrist Kadima Party, but that she apposes new elections for the time being. Livni is the most senior Israeli politician so far to call for Mr. Olmert to step down. Earlier in the day, the Kadima Party leader / also said it's time to form an new coalition with a new prime minister. Polls published Wednesday in major newspapers indicting about 2/3 of Israelis want Mr. Olmert to step down. Jim Teeple, VOA News, Jerusalem.

Britain, France and the United States preparing to ask the United Nations to create an international court to try suspects. VOA's Peter Heinlein reports.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon sent his top Legal Advisor Nicolas Michel to Lebanon last month to try to break the impasse preventing creation of a Hariri assasination tribunal. Michel told the Security Council Wednesday his mission had failed and it is now up to the council to decide what to do next. "I had to say that I had no progress to report on the efforts that I made. And it's now definitely for them to assess the situation on their basis and to decide whatever course of action they want to take." Hariri and 22 others died in a suicide truck bomb explosion in Beirut more than 2 years ago. An initial UN enquiry implicated senior Syrian intelligence officials in the murder. Damascus has strongly denied the involvement and condemned the killings. Peter Heinlein, VOA News, the United Nations.

The International Criminal Court has issued its first arrest warrants over the conflict in Sudan's Darfur region, seeking to try a government minister and a militia leader. Sudanese government quickly rejected the warrants, saying it does not recognize the Criminal Court.

I'm Steve Aldridge, VOA News. More news on the internet at voanews.com.